President Bola Tinubu on Thursday approved system-wide education policies tagged “DOTS”, an acronym for Data Repository, Out-of-School Children Education, Teacher Training and Development, and Skill Development and Acquisition.
The policy, according to Ajuri Ngelale, presidential spokesman, is to ensure an overhual of the sector for improved learning and skill development, increase enrolment, and ensure the academic security of children.
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The policy will include the creation of a data repository, that will address the paucity of coordinated, verifiable, and authentic data on all aspects of the education sector in Nigeria.
The president, who said that data was critical for planning, approved the conduct of an extensive census of all schools in Nigeria, from primary to tertiary level, their conditions and live-in facilities, proximity to one another, educational infrastructure, etc.
This will also involve data on teachers in Nigeria, their qualifications and training support received.
It will also take a census of all pupils and students in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions, gender, exam grades, among others
The information will guide federal and state interventions for teachers’ training and development as well as overall support. It will also provide data on gender ratio (boys and girls), their specific learning needs, and who is in school or who has dropped out based on daily monitoring with year-by-year reporting.
The president also approved a dedicated portal/dashboard in the Federal Ministry of Education, offices of state governors, and local government chairpersons, which will host and disseminate this information for the federal government, states, and local governments to monitor in real-time.
The new data-tracking architecture will enable the government to track the progress of students, thus having a clear data-driven mechanism for interventions, especially concerning out-of-school children, girls, and those with specific learning disabilities, among others.
Tinubu also approved the policy that will monitor the implementation of out-of-school children’s education and training.
The policy is already being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education through the activities of four of its agencies.
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“Already, there are about two million beneficiaries. The system-wide policy will further enhance the education and training of the nation’s out-of-school children”
Under this programme, the Federal Ministry of Education will support and train teachers in digital skills to facilitate the use of technology in classrooms. This is expected to bring technology and digitisation to teachers and learners at all levels of education.
